82201, Mark 4 Driving Van Trailer at GranthamPhotographed at Grantham Station on 6 February 2009.
Built in 1988 by Metro-Cammell. Weight: 43.7 tonnes, length: 18.83 m, width: 2.71 m.
The Driving Van Trailer (DVT), sometimes referred to as Driving Luggage Van (DLV), allows the driver to operate a locomotive at the opposite end of a train. Trains operating with a DVT therefore do not require the locomotive to run round to the other end of the train at terminal stations. DVTs resemble locomotives (specifically, classes 90 and 91) and thus when the train is operating in "push" mode it does not appear to be travelling backwards. These vehicles have no passenger accommodation due to rules in place at the time of building that prohibited passengers in the leading vehicles of trains that travel at more than 100 mph (161 km/h).
On the InterCity 225 (IC225) sets, such as shown here, operating on the East Coast Main Line (ECML) the Mark 4 DVTs and locomotives operate in push-pull formation utilising a Time-Division Multiplexer to send control signals along specially screened cables which run the length of the train.
Picture added on 21 February 2009
Added by Paul Warnock on 18 July 2011.